Alice In Wonderland Party

Emilee had an Alice in Wonderland party for her 9th Birthday!

They Played Croquet!

 I made the croquet sticks out of a pineapple can and the cardboard insert from wrapping paper and a little paint.  I also bent hangers and hot glued Alice character pictures for the half circles to hit the ball through.

This is the food table before the treats were set out.  They were chocolate and would've melted in the hot sun!

Painting The Roses Red and Playing Card centerpiece.  Also the Drink Me! bottles in the back ground!

      The Giant Tea Cup centerpiece!

                                                 

Flowers with eyes in a stack of Tea Cups and a Playing Card Guard!

                               

Eat Me! Cupcakes

                                                                  

 

Playing Card Banner!

I wish that I got a picture of the Edible Tea Cup's we made.  After they made it we filled it with some coconut ice cream and then they ate them!  We also played a tea cup relay race and Toss the sugar cube into the tea cup game.  It was a really fun party!

White Hill

We did it! We finally closed on property! We sold our house in Oct. 2009 and have been actively searching for our dream property ever since. Our poor kids are so sick of looking for property! This was our 15th offer (including counter offers). They've all fallen through for different reasons. It's been quite the journey! Now that we have property the real work begins. It's amazing how many different permits we'll need in order to start building. Well, road, building, septic, wilderness interface, fire and on and on. To make it even harder is the fact that we want to do alternative/green building. It's always harder to get things approved when you're one of the first. We bought 90 acres and ended up putting most of the money we got from our home sale into the property. It makes our payments for the ground much lower but now we have no money for actually building our home. We have some things that will hopefully come through for that! I do realize that the journey has just begun. I have no idea how many years it will take to build but I think it will be worth it in the end!










South view from the property.














My step dad, Ren, and Hailee at a rock outcropping.














Some people from Safe Haven testing the soil.














A map of our property.
















Founding members of Safe Haven! We're at the "Waterfall". Well it's a waterfall during winter and rain runoff. We plan on making this into a full time waterfall! This picture doesn't do it justice! It's so beautiful.


We plan on first putting in a minor subdivision and then later a major subdivision. Our community is named Safe Haven. We plan on having a green subdivision, community center, and wallapinis (underground green houses for year around growing). We have over 90 people interested in our project. Not all of them will move there but they want to be a part of it in some way. It's exciting that's it's finally all coming together!

Here's a link to the blog my husband is doing about building our home:
http://www.allanssustainablehome.com/2010/04/purchased-white-hills-90-acres-water.html

Guru

Last night we were having dinner at Guru's (in Provo). We were with most of Sterling's family because we haven't seen each other since Thanksgiving and it's about time we all got together again. Thanks for planning it McKaylee! We always have such a great time and there's always a ton of us! I'm sure every restaurant we go to regrets having us there cuz we have so many kids and we take up sooo much room. Hey at least they get a good tip, right? Anyway I was talking to my sister-in-law and thought I caught a glimse of Milo Ventimiglia. For those of you that are Gilmore Girl fans he plays Jess.










But I was wrong it wasn't Milo it was Mark Ballas






















and Derek Hough!





We both were very excited because we love Dancing With The Stars!
We decided to go over and get a picture with them and talk for a little bit! They were both very sweet and let us get a picture with them. They told us that they were doing to show at The Covey in one hour and there were still some tickets! After rearranging our schedules we headed to the Covey to get some tickets. We were happy to get some even if they were back balcony seats. It was such an amazing show! We had such a great time. After the performance we went and got another picture with them and got their autographs.





Chelsie Hightower was also there. It was so much fun to watch such amazing performers dance live.
















Mark also played the guitar and he and Derek sang. Those two are entirely too talented!


















We had such a great time! It was a night to remember!

Christmas!

Christmas before opening all the presents! The kids actually got up at 4 AM on Christmas morning, but we were mean and made them go back to bed, "Until you see the sun out your window". They fell back to sleep at about 5 AM and got up at 7:30 AM. Much better!


We let the kids open one present on Christmas Eve and they all got PJ bottoms that I made.
We had a great Christmas morning just taking it easy. I made yummy cinnamon pull apart' s, soy sausages and orange juice. In the late afternoon we headed to my Dad's house and had an enjoyable family dinner. Christmas is so much work but it's all worth it when I watch the kids opening their presents!

Birthdays! Birthdays! Birthdays!

For Christian's Birthday, on Dec. 7th, we went to Pirate Island Pizza! It's a fun place completely decorated in a Pirate theme. Even the waiters are dressed up and speak in "pirate". We got the kids 100 tokens to split up and play in the arcade with. They had a great time! Christian said it was his best birthday ever! I'm glad he thinks so since we were at Disneyland 2 years ago for his birthday!


The next day, Dec. 8th, was Hailee's 4th Birthday! We opened presents on her birthday, but had her birthday party that weekend, at my Mom's house.








Somehow I managed not to take any pictures of all the cute Strawberry Shortcake decorations. She had a great time playing games, opening presents, and eating her strawberry cupcakes!









The day after Hailee's party my friends threw me a fun 30th Birthday party!


















Here's the cute center pieces! They got pictures from my Mom from growing up-present day!











They went to so much work for all of the super cute decorations and making the yummy dinner. Thanks you guys! I had so much fun and it's something I'll never forget.

Peppermintstick Holiday Frock

You can enter to Win this VERY adorable dress at

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/peppermint-stick-holiday-frock_26.html

It fit's sizes 2-5! I'm sooo in love with this dress!!!

And you can enter to win this super chic purse at
http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/11/charm-design-50-gift-card-guest.html

Trick or Treat

I know I'm really late in posting about Halloween! We moved just a couple days before Halloween so things were kind of crazy! We went to my brother's neighborhood Trunk or Treat. I really love Trunk or Treats! The kids are happy with all the candy and I'm happy with how fast it is!

Christian was Captain Jack Sparrow

Emilee was Sleeping Beauty, Hailee was a Cat, and Aubrie was a Girl Pirate!

After the Trunk or Treat we headed to my Mom's house for some yummy dinner. After which we headed out for some more Trick or Treating. We had a great time and it was a really nice break from the chaos of our house and all the unpacking.